Natural Gut "bruising" in my machine

Tennis Fanatic 070 · Aug 7, 2013

I strung natural gut once with my stringing machine, but 'bruises' natural gut too much, so I stopped stringing. I don't have an option to adjust my tensioner.

Somebody on this forum already told me to wax and pre-stretch the string.

Does anyone has more tips to keep it from bruising and will this bruising affect the charicteristics of the string?

Maybe it is better if I don't waste my money on NG?

thanks in advance.

scotus · Aug 7, 2013

Which is the culprit, the tensioner or the clamps?

v-verb · Aug 7, 2013

glad you brought this up. My floating clamps bruised my Klip gut. I loosed them up a tad but still bruised it.

So loosen the clamps more or is there something else that can be done?

jim e · Aug 7, 2013

You do not want the clamps to crush the string, but you want it to hold properly, as slipping is a major error with nat. gut.Crushing or slipping is a big error.
If it is just ghosting the string a little where the clamp held the string, do not worry, thats okay. That happens with nat. gut a little, and even more so with some multifilament strings.
I string a lot of nat. gut, and never wax them. That use to be done years ago before gut had the nice coatings that todays have. A player would have to pay me extra to wax strings, as I would have to clean machine and clamps a lot more intense after the job would be done.Waxing is really not necessary, only if you feel more comfortable doing it.

v-verb · Aug 7, 2013

thanks Jim E

I think I was getting ghosting on the strings - will post a pic later

OP can you post a pic of your gut?
Cheers

pvaudio · Aug 7, 2013

I agree with Jim E. Ghosting is unavoidable on some soft multis and guts. It it's legit crushing, it looks quite different.

Tennis Fanatic 070 · Aug 7, 2013

scotus said:
Which is the culprit, the tensioner or the clamps?

I'm almost sure it was the tensioner, or maybe both tensioner and clamps were costing the damage. It was a long time ago, I was so frustrated when I saw it, that I stopped stringing it.

I will keep an eye on the clamps next time, to make sure it isn't clamping too tight.

Does anyone have any advice about which NG has the best coating to avoid bruising/ghosting as much as possible on a cheap drop weight machine?

v-verb · Aug 7, 2013

OP I have a Klippermate and the tensioner wasn't the problem - it was the clamps FWIW

Tennis Fanatic 070 · Aug 7, 2013

v-verb said:
OP I have a Klippermate and the tensioner wasn't the problem - it was the clamps FWIW

Ok maybe that was my problem as well, I assumed it was the tensioner causing it, seemed to make more sense back then, but I never checked. Thanks for this info.

Crisp · Aug 7, 2013

I also get ghosting on my natural gut from the tensioner never from the clamps. Which got me thinking. Do pro level machines have superior tension heads and clamps. My machine is an ex used machine from the Australian Open but I did notice it does not have the same clamps as they used while it was in service at the Open. Does that mean they replaced the clamps with lower grade? Any pro stringers would be helpful with this question? The clamps I use are diamond dusted as is the tension head but are there even better clamp out there us laymans are not aware of?

scotus · Aug 7, 2013

Before I switched to Stringway, I had a dropweight machine which had a tensioner designed to grip the string at a very sharp angle. I wouldn't recommend that type of machine for fragile strings.

Perhaps there is a diablo or some gadget that can be installed on problematic tensioners.

Tennis Fanatic 070 · Aug 7, 2013

scotus said:
Before I switched to Stringway, I had a dropweight machine which had a tensioner designed to grip the string at a very sharp angle. I wouldn't recommend that type of machine for fragile strings.

Perhaps there is a diablo or some gadget that can be installed on problematic tensioners.

That stringway machine, isn't that the one that where the arm doesn't need to be horizontal to apply the proper tension?

Rjtennis · Aug 7, 2013

Tennis Fanatic 070 said:
I'm almost sure it was the tensioner, or maybe both tensioner and clamps were costing the damage. It was a long time ago, I was so frustrated when I saw it, that I stopped stringing it.

I will keep an eye on the clamps next time, to make sure it isn't clamping too tight.

Does anyone have any advice about which NG has the best coating to avoid bruising/ghosting as much as possible on a cheap drop weight machine?

VS Gut has a nice sturdy coating and you shouldn't have any issues. Like others have said a little bit of denting or ghosting is natural and is not going to effect playability or durability. Most of that occurs on the outer perimeters of the string bed anyway. It continues to suprise me how durable NG is.

scotus · Aug 7, 2013

Tennis Fanatic 070 said:
That stringway machine, isn't that the one that where the arm doesn't need to be horizontal to apply the proper tension?

Yes, Stringway dropweights are convenient that way, but I chose the foot-pedaled spring model instead.

What is nice about Stringway clam-shell gripper is that there is no sharp angle and the gripping force is distributed over a longer length of the string, which greatly diminishes the chance of the string snapping at the tensioner.

Tennis Fanatic 070 · Aug 8, 2013

Rjtennis said:
VS Gut has a nice sturdy coating and you shouldn't have any issues. Like others have said a little bit of denting or ghosting is natural and is not going to effect playability or durability. Most of that occurs on the outer perimeters of the string bed anyway. It continues to suprise me how durable NG is.

Thank u very much, I like Babolat a lot, so I feel very comfortable buying that string!!

Rjtennis · Aug 8, 2013

No problem. Buy the 16 and you really shouldn't have any issues. The new VS is very stringer friendly for someone new to stringing gut. Stringing gut is intimidating for everyone at first, but after a few sets you will be flying through it. If you have any other questions feel free to message me.

Tennis Fanatic 070 · Aug 8, 2013

Rjtennis said:
No problem. Buy the 16 and you really shouldn't have any issues. The new VS is very stringer friendly for someone new to stringing gut. Stringing gut is intimidating for everyone at first, but after a few sets you will be flying through it. If you have any other questions feel free to message me.

Thanks a lot for this!

Natural Gut "bruising" in my machine

Tennis Fanatic 070

Banned

scotus

G.O.A.T.

v-verb

Hall of Fame

jim e

Legend

v-verb

Hall of Fame

pvaudio

Legend

Tennis Fanatic 070

Banned

v-verb

Hall of Fame

Tennis Fanatic 070

Banned

Crisp

Professional

scotus

G.O.A.T.

Tennis Fanatic 070

Banned

Rjtennis

Hall of Fame

scotus

G.O.A.T.

Tennis Fanatic 070

Banned

Rjtennis

Hall of Fame

Tennis Fanatic 070

Banned

Similar threads